The present invention relates to a compact automatic vending machine with a simple structure which can be provided at a low cost, and particularly to an automatic vending machine for small-sized light articles such as contraceptive appliances and the like.
Various types of automatic vending machines have been known which serve as labor saving machines that allow articles to be automatically sold when appropriate coins are deposited therein. Conventional automatic vending machines, however, comprise, so called, a coin selector for checking whether the coins deposited are genuine and, if the coins in question are general currency, discriminating the types of coin and counting the amount of money deposited, and an article discharge mechanism for dispensing the article to be sold, these two apparatuses being separately provided.
Such automatic vending machines must, therefore, have an arrangement in which a large-sized expensive coin selector having a pre-determined size and an article discharge mechanism having a complicated structure are separately incorporated. The structure thus becomes complex and cannot be made compact, and the cost is inevitably high. After such automatic vending machines have been repeatedly used for a long time, they no longer can function smoothly and thus various sorts of troubles and malfunctioning frequently occur, as well as repair being difficult.